Yesterday, I dabbled with spicing up a cheese and potato pie. Today, I fancied a bit of focaccia fun

So using this focaccia recipe http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/focaccia_08389 I have tried to see what happens. This recipe has been adapted. I have added red chilli flakes, onion seeds, cumin and carom seeds. As well as Mum’s home grown rosemary, both in the mixture and on top as it bakes.

Was really a very labour intensive process, the whole kneading and proving. It actually requires a lot more muscle than you’d think.

This is it. The one and only reason growing yellow tomatoes. I wanted to make a yellow tomato chutney relish thing. This is an recipe for chillied tomato relish that I have adapted. You will see from the image what has been added. Whilst I have failed to grow any orange habaneros, two hot Thai chillies did find their way into this relish as well as one big red one and two green birds eyes. I have plumped it all out with yellow peppers.

Doesn’t look too bad, but perhaps too many mustard seed. A bit tart at the moment, but it will be sitting for at least a month.

Today we rhubarb’d. Same recipe. 1.5 litres of fruit. I had harvested a lot of rhurbarb, hoping to get a better fruitier flavour. No cinonman, but some fresh root ginger.

The sticks were chopped up into half inch pieces and boiled with the water. After some mashing, which happened rather quickly. The whole thing was passed through a tea cloth and a sieve. 400g of sugar was added and the liquid simmered to dissolve. Liquid was then cooled and decanted.

Last one, I think. A couple of pounds of blackberries, brown sugar and some basics French brandy. Will have to be inverted twice a day for the first week and then once a week to be left for three months.

Wonder if there is a posh name for this?

Experimenting with the jam pan again. This time it’s apple and plum. With additions of ginger and black cardomom. I did think at one stage that it was wasn’t very pink. So i did add some blackberries.

Everything was piled into the pan, and stewed. The apples took a lot mashing actually, I didn’t anticipate that.

I have used equal quantities of fruit and sugar to keep a balance. With the juice of half a Lemon per pound. I simply cannot get the stuff to reach setting point, but it does in the jar.

Ma spent some time on the plot and has come home with bundles of chard and spinach. Reckons she fancies doke palak paneer for dinner. Paneer being the cubed Indian cheese.

A bit delayed perhaps, but not surprising as they were sunk late. The gladioli are coming through. Some of them are normal sized, others are meant to be giant ones. Lots of brightly coloured ones should follow, hopefully.

We have babies

There is one bright yellow floo’er, and one tiny one with a fruit behind it. Since one has opened and be other is yet to do so; I can’t really be hopeful about the second one setting fruit. It might need to be tickled but there may not be anything to tickle it withZ